This is really the sort of thing that belongs over on Jack Bog but I just received this news in my inbox from a contact in DC. Somehow Portland wound up on a list of 31 potential cities to host the 2008 Republican National Convention. I'm not making this up.

It's gotta be a last minute gag by someone in the party and there's no way the convention would come to town in a million years. After all, this is the city that Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr. once fondly referred to as "Little Beirut." Anyway, here's the RNC press release that was passed along to me this morning.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Aaron McLear

Wednesday, February 15, 2006
202-XXX-XXXX

RNC Invites Cities To Host

2008 Republican National Convention

WASHINGTON - In beginning the process of selecting a host city for the 2008 Republican National Convention, the Republican National Committee (RNC) yesterday presented request for proposals to 31 cities. The request includes an outline of the specifications for hosting the convention and a request for preliminary information that will assist the RNC Site Selection Committee in evaluating each interested city.

Cities that received 2008 request for proposals are:

Anaheim, Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Tampa.

"We are excited to begin the process of selecting a city to host our 2008 convention," RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman said.

"We have had a lot of interest from a variety of cities across the country and look forward to finding a city that will help us showcase our positive agenda for America," added RNC Co-Chairman and Site Selection Committee Chair Jo Ann Davidson.

Cities were informed that the RNC Site Selection Committee will hold individual meetings in Washington, D.C. with representatives from all interested cities to discuss convention criteria, logistics and the site selection process. Cities that did not receive a request for proposal but would like to be considered can contact the RNC.

The Site Selection Committee will decide on a list of finalist cities by mid-summer of 2006. The Committee plans to visit only those finalist cities during the late-summer and expects to make a final selection on the Host City no later than February 1, 2007.

The RNC will select dates for the convention in the coming weeks.

I poked around a bit and it looks like no one else locally has reported on this yet. Hooray! I've scooped Portland media at large!

You heard it here first, folks.

UPDATE: Nope, wait. Looks like the The Business Journal of Portland beat me by an hour and medfordnews.com was on it by 11:30. Nothing on Oregon Live as of 2:15 though. They're running breaking news on Sebastian Telfair, who was apparently caught on the Blazers' team plane with a loaded gun. Huh?!!